Offroad Proflex 550 1991

ishay

Retro Guru
Well, while I wait for the tyres to finish the P7, I found myself on ebay. I won a Aluminium Elite, only to find I'd not met the reserve, which means they want too much for it. Annoyed and now "on tilt", I low-balled a Make Offer Buy-it- Now at barely 50% of the asking price only to see it accepted.

The bike would barely be worth what I paid except it comes with a set of Manitou Answers which I want for the P7 anyway. In truth I wanted a 750 because I lusted after one (the only decent bike) in the LBS I did my work experience in. But for now, I'll have fun with another steel frame.
 
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Bike incoming so seller pics
 

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That looks pretty decent, what are your plans for it?
Thought about returning it to the stock rigid fork?
 
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Will 100% be putting rigid forks on it. Firstly I really want the Manitous for the P7 because it was always meant to be a hardtail build and I found the F7 steerer was cracked which sealed the deal, at least for now. And secondly because it just looks weird as it is.

Only question is the colour. Not in love with either 550 colour scheme I’ve seen. I love the 750 grey/brown with orange. I probably will paint it something because I did with the KHS and enjoyed process. Maybe I’ll do something custom for a laugh.

All the parts will be refurbished if I can, new elastomers. My dream 750 had yellow fluro Meguras so that might be an addition at the end, if the rest goes well
 
So, it arrived, but not entirely in a good way...
 

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Made some progress fixing the seat tube but it’s not fully round yet but the seat post squeezes in, with some collateral damage to the post...

Sacrificed a perfectly good set of 2011 hybrid Specialised bars to the cause...
 

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I have decided on the colour scheme. I'm going to respray it and really thought I'd like this, even though I know it's a 750, not to fake it, I've just liked it for 25 years

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but I now this I'm going this route. It doesn't mean anything to me unlike that above, but it's a 550 and I can actually get the right fluro blue, whereas I can't find the right peach (?) in a rattle can.

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Found some old threads but does anybody have any latest thinking on rear shock elastomers?

I've seen expensive translucent yellow ones but would be keen on bright yellow (classic) or blue (like the catalogue I posted above). I've also seen cheap Cane Creek ones in Black which will be fine as a last resort.
 
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